Music: Going for the Grail at the Met

Placido Domingo triumphs in Wagner's Lohengrin

Thanks to the proliferation of summer festivals, opera, like football, is practically a year-round proposition these days. Even so, the fall openings of major international companies like New York City's Metropolitan Opera still have a glamorous cachet, and provide the occasion to muster a spectacular vocal show. Last week the Met did just that with a starry production of Wagner's Lohengrin.*

It was a night devoted to singing, and the cast, conducted by the company's music director, James Levine, was a rich international assemblage that included the splendid...